OMG - February Finishes

I can't believe I almost forgot this post. I've been busily sewing this month and although I got lots done, not too many things against my list.

My main goal was to finish my tic tac toe quilt top and I did finish it...yeah!!! I got it and the back ironed last night and I had hoped to get it on the long arm today, but alas life interrupted me. But I will work on it tomorrow. As I ironed it last night my nephew saw it and really liked the pattern, so I think I'm going to change the color scheme and use the same pattern for my bees this year and make him one. The X's on his will be purple, the O's black and the backgrounds like grey. He was pretty happy at the idea of getting a new quilt. And I promise this is the last time you'll see this one until it is quilted.

Now as always I can't just have one thing on my list. I did finish my bee blocks and I got my selfish sewing done. You can read all about my selfish sewing in the previous post. My bee blocks were lots of fun this month, the hearts were sure easy and the double star wasn't as hard as I had feared.

I did not make any progress on the memory quilts or piecing the backing. Over all I had a good month, I just didn't do a good job of sewing my list. Now I have to figure out my goal for next month, but for now I'm linking up with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts.

4 X 7 Sewing Challenge - Final Week & Bee, Myself and I

Ok to be honest there is still one more day left in February, and I plan on sewing, but my goal is to start quilting my tic tac toe quilt and I'm pretty sure I won't finish it in one day. Now this week/month has been very successful for me. I felt several times that 30 minutes a day wouldn't add up to much, but let me tell you it does. I fought having a hurt knee, sickness in the house, lots of doctor appointments, work, exhaustion, and yet I finished lots and lots. I'm combining my 4 X 7 Challenge with Bee, Myself and I because they are both about sewing for yourself.

First let me recap this past week, in a quick manner and then we will go on to a recap of the whole month. This week has been all about the crosses. I did an inventory of what I had, and calculated what I needed. I spent time cutting the last few I needed, sewed, ironed and sewed some more. Most days I only put in 30 minutes, and that was enough for me to finish the all the crosses I needed.

So let's look at what I got done this month. I finished 9 tic tac toe blocks, which gave me enough to finish the top. It is a 5 x 6 layout and measures 60 x 72. I normally like larger quilts, but this one is going to be my chair quilt. I will keep it by my chair to throw over my legs when I get cold. So it doesn't need to be quite as long. I'm spending my 30 minutes tonight ironing the top and back so I can get them loaded onto the long-arm tomorrow.

Next I finished 19 geese blocks, which is what I needed to finish. I still have to get all the blocks up onto my design wall. The flying geese quilt will be a little larger, because it will be in a 6 x 7 layout, which means it will be 72 x 84. I want this one to be one of my "snuggle quilts". I am a little weird and don't like to sleep under lots of sheets/blankets, so I will often sleep on top of my bed with just a "snuggle" quilt. If it is really cold I will crawl under everything, but since I live in Texas, it doesn't get really cold too often. I did make quite a few purple geese, because purple is my favorite color. I love how they look.

And last but not least I finished 38 cross blocks. These have been so much fun to make, and I've made a lot of them. I need 289 because I want this to be a large queen size. The plan is for it to be 17 x 17 blocks or 102 x 102 inches. It is going to take me some time to assemble it, since the blocks are small. My plan is to work in groups of 5 x 5 blocks then make 1 x 5 sections to connect them.  This project has been several years in the making, so I'm not going to rush, but I'm so happy to be able to move to the next step.  Here are the last few blocks I make this month. A funny story about one of these crosses...the dark blue Cotton & Steel at the top, uses a background fabric that says "Texas". What is fun about that, besides that I'm from Texas, is that these crosses started as my turn as Queen in the Compass Bee group. I tried to put something that represented Texas in all the blocks I sent to my bee mates, so I thought it was important that something be in my blocks as well.

So that is my month of selfish sewing for the 4 X 7 Sewing Challenge and at the same time my Bee, Myself and I blocks. I just realized I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to do next on Bee, Myself and I, because I've finished all of the blocks I needed.  I will have to think about that. I will be linking up with Sarah @ Berry Barns Designs. And if you want to follow Bee, Myself and I, check out Granny Maud's Girl blog.

4 X 7 Sewing Challenge - Week 3

My progress was less than stellar last week. I sewed every day, but most days I only got in my 30 minutes. I am feeling better and so is Sharla, in fact she was feeling well enough to have her second cataracts surgery yesterday. I mainly sewed on my geese and crosses, and the good news is with what I got done, I'm pretty close on both of them to having enough to start putting together the tops.

I started the week with working on my flying geese, I worked both Monday and Tuesday sewing them together, but I didn't take photos both days, because it was boring piles of sewn geese. I did take a picture of the pile at one point on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I finished sewing the geese into actual geese. They still have to be sewn into groups of four, but I love once they are at this stage. I want to do more flying geese quilts in the future, there is just something about them that makes me happy.

On Thursday I sewed the geese into pairs. I had planned on getting them sewn into fours, but by the time the day was over I just didn't have it in me to do more. I try to sew at night before bed, but when I am really tired, sometimes it is a struggle.

Friday was very very very slow for work, and so I carried my phone into the sewing room and went to work on the geese. I got them sewn into fours and ironed.  Woohoo, got my 30 minutes in early and so that meant I could just veg after work.

With the batch of geese done, Saturday I moved on to crosses. I had cut a bunch earlier in the month but needed to cut some backgrounds. I randomly pulled some of my background fabrics and cut them and then started sewing. I love these blocks because there are lots of places to easily stop along the way.

On Sunday I started putting the rows together. I got the all of this batch done, and considered going on and finishing them, but I needed to do some mundane things like clean/laundry. If I were to win the lottery, I would hire someone to do the cleaning so I could sew, sew, sew.

So that wraps up my week last week. Although it wasn't lots and lots of progress, I feel good. I have to do an inventory on my geese and crosses to see how many I need to do to complete each of the quilts. I don't know that I can finish them this month, but I will say I've made some great progress this month.  Today I'm linking up with Sarah @ Berry Barns Designs.